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Rheumatic fever: Diet as a predisposing factor
135
SELECTED ABSTRACTS
Systolic murmurs after effort occur in normal individuals. The production or accentuation of such murmurs after exercise, therefore, cannot be used as a diagnostic test. There are several mechanisms involved when murmurs are influenced by respiration. All faint murmurs, organic or functional, may disappear with a deep inspiration. In some instances extracardiac systolic murmurs may be louder, and in others fainter, with a deep expiration. The current teaching about propagation of murmurs needs revision. These considerations are important in the examination of selectees for military service. AUTHORS.
de 10s Reyes, R. P., de la Terre, H., Labourdette, J., and Junco, J. A.: Cardiopathies in Cuban Children. Arch. de med. inf. 13: 3, 1944.
Rheumatic
The authors refer to the incidence and importance of rheumatic cardiopathy among Cuban children, which, though relatively less numerous than in the cold countries, constitutes the greatest calamity children’s hearts suffer with acquired cardiopathies. The study is based on 100 children, 50 boys and 50 girls, chosen from among 200 clinical records of rheumatic children which have been followed up for a long time with a series of electrocardiographic and orthodiagraphic studies, sedimentation rates, and other complementary investigations, pointing out the lesional diagnosis, course of the disease, and treatment used, plus an anatomopathologic study of post-mortem examinations. The authors have found 30 per cent more incidence in the girls than in the boys; the ages ranged from 5 to 11 years, inclusive. The white race was attacked most often, then the Negro, and third, the mulatto. The poorer and most needy classes offer the greatest number of cases. Mortality has been found to reach 18 per cent. AUTHORS.
Peete, D. C.: Rheumatic 21: 44, 1944.
Fever:
Diet as a Predisposing
Factor.
Ann. Int. Med.
The author relates evidence which indicates that diet, and sunshine are the most important predisposing factors in the causation of acute rheumatic fever. He discusses various climatic conditions which are related. He believes that the dietary deficiency which closely follows the incidence of clinical rickets alters the individual’s immunity to the organism which produces the clinical picture of acute rheumatic fever. MCCULLOCH. Rodbard, S., and Katz, L. N.: The Effect of Pregnancy on Blood Pressure in Normotensive and Hypertensive Dogs. Am. J. Obst. & Gynec. 47: 753, 1944. The blood pressure in normotensive and especially in hypertensive dogs tends to fall late in pregnancy. The degree of reduction of blood pressure is apparently affected by the size of the litter. It is possible that the blood pressure decline is related to the low resistance placental circuit which develops during pregnancy. It is also possible that some humoral factor (not involving the fetal kidneys) caused by the maternal endocrine alterations which accompany pregnancy contributes to the blood pressure change and helps to account for the variability in the time at which this blood pressure drop occurs. Surgical or other traumatic intervention during the latter part of pregnancy appears to predispose to abortion in the dog. AUTHORS.
SELECTED ABSTRACTS
Systolic murmurs after effort occur in normal individuals. The production or accentuation of such murmurs after exercise, therefore, cannot be used as a diagnostic test. There are several mechanisms involved when murmurs are influenced by respiration. All faint murmurs, organic or functional, may disappear with a deep inspiration. In some instances extracardiac systolic murmurs may be louder, and in others fainter, with a deep expiration. The current teaching about propagation of murmurs needs revision. These considerations are important in the examination of selectees for military service. AUTHORS.
de 10s Reyes, R. P., de la Terre, H., Labourdette, J., and Junco, J. A.: Cardiopathies in Cuban Children. Arch. de med. inf. 13: 3, 1944.
Rheumatic
The authors refer to the incidence and importance of rheumatic cardiopathy among Cuban children, which, though relatively less numerous than in the cold countries, constitutes the greatest calamity children’s hearts suffer with acquired cardiopathies. The study is based on 100 children, 50 boys and 50 girls, chosen from among 200 clinical records of rheumatic children which have been followed up for a long time with a series of electrocardiographic and orthodiagraphic studies, sedimentation rates, and other complementary investigations, pointing out the lesional diagnosis, course of the disease, and treatment used, plus an anatomopathologic study of post-mortem examinations. The authors have found 30 per cent more incidence in the girls than in the boys; the ages ranged from 5 to 11 years, inclusive. The white race was attacked most often, then the Negro, and third, the mulatto. The poorer and most needy classes offer the greatest number of cases. Mortality has been found to reach 18 per cent. AUTHORS.
Peete, D. C.: Rheumatic 21: 44, 1944.
Fever:
Diet as a Predisposing
Factor.
Ann. Int. Med.
The author relates evidence which indicates that diet, and sunshine are the most important predisposing factors in the causation of acute rheumatic fever. He discusses various climatic conditions which are related. He believes that the dietary deficiency which closely follows the incidence of clinical rickets alters the individual’s immunity to the organism which produces the clinical picture of acute rheumatic fever. MCCULLOCH. Rodbard, S., and Katz, L. N.: The Effect of Pregnancy on Blood Pressure in Normotensive and Hypertensive Dogs. Am. J. Obst. & Gynec. 47: 753, 1944. The blood pressure in normotensive and especially in hypertensive dogs tends to fall late in pregnancy. The degree of reduction of blood pressure is apparently affected by the size of the litter. It is possible that the blood pressure decline is related to the low resistance placental circuit which develops during pregnancy. It is also possible that some humoral factor (not involving the fetal kidneys) caused by the maternal endocrine alterations which accompany pregnancy contributes to the blood pressure change and helps to account for the variability in the time at which this blood pressure drop occurs. Surgical or other traumatic intervention during the latter part of pregnancy appears to predispose to abortion in the dog. AUTHORS.